An AVM system for vehicles denotes a system that senses objects which are located within a range of 360 degrees with respect to a driver's vehicle.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a general AVM system for vehicles. FIG. 2 is a diagram three-dimensionally showing arrangement positions of four cameras of FIG. 1 disposed in a vehicle and four regions respectively photographed by the four cameras. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an AVM image displayed by the general AVM system for vehicles.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the general AVM system for vehicles includes four camera units 11-1 to 11-4, an AVM unit 13, and a display unit 15.
The four camera units 11-1 to 11-4 respectively photograph four photographing regions R1 to R4 which include a front region, a rear region, a left region, and a right region of a vehicle.
The AVM unit 13 generates one image (hereinafter referred to as an AVM image) from four channel images of the photographing regions R1 to R4 respectively photographed by the camera units 11-1 to 11-4 and supplies the AVM image to a driver through the display unit 15.
The AVM image, which is supplied to the driver through the display unit 15, is as shown in FIG. 3. Referring to FIG. 3, a front image 31 of a front photographing region is disposed above an AVM image 39, a rear image 37 of a rear photographing region is disposed below the AVM image 39, a left image 33 of a left photographing region is disposed on the left of the AVM image 39, and a right image 35 of a right photographing region is disposed on the right of the AVM image 39.
Therefore, the driver may check objects, which are located within a range of 360 degrees with respect to its own driver, through one AVM image.
Recently, in the vehicle electronic field, an active safety system is being actively developed. The active safety system is used as a contrary concept of a passive safety system.
The passive safety system is the generic term for a system which operates a specific device after an accident occurs, and thus promotes safety of a driver. For example, as a type of the passive safety system, there is an air back system which operates an air back when a vehicle collision is sensed.
On the other hand, the active safety system is the generic term for a system which predicts occurrence of an accident and warns a driver of a result of the prediction. Examples of the active safety system may include a lane departure warning (LDW) system, a forward collision warning (FCW) system, a high beam assistant (HBA) system, etc.
A number of vehicle companies implement the active safety system by using an image processing operation based on a stereo camera.
As described above, the AVM system and the active safety system are systems that are attracting much attention for promoting the safe driving of all vehicles. When the systems are applied to one vehicle, a complexity of a vehicle electronic system increases.
Particularly, when the AVM system and the active safety system are all applied to one vehicle, camera sensors of the AVM system and camera sensors of the active safety system are equipped in the one vehicle, and for this reason, the cost increases, and resources are wasted by the camera sensors.